Coalition to Save Hempstead Harbor holding fundraiser

The Coalition to Save Hempstead Harbor, a Sea Cliff-based nonprofit dedicated to the preservation of the harbor’s natural landscape, is holding a fundraiser in honor of the 35th anniversary of its 1986 establishment. Board President Karen Papasergiou said the coalition was looking to raise $50,000 to boost membership and allow the organization to continue its work to ensure the health of the harbor.

Papasergiou said that the Galvan Foundation, a preservation nonprofit, had already donated $15,000. Foundation members, she added, felt that raising $35,000 more was not only an attainable goal, but also numerically matched the anniversary. The money will help the organization expand its staffing and programming.

More people need to sit in on meetings focusing on development along the Hempstead Harbor coastline, Papasergiou said, because the coalition is concerned about overdevelopment in the area, which can contribute to pollution of the harbor’s waters. In fact, she explained, the coalition came to be because of residents who took an interest in the potential for overdevelopment. In the mid-1980s, the construction of a 990-ton incinerator was proposed for a landfill in Port Washington, near the coastline. The stacks of the incinerator, she said, would have pushed pollutants toward Sea Cliff and into Hempstead Harbor.

A group of environmentally minded people came together at Town of North Hempstead meetings to fight its construction. Ultimately, the town supervisor at the time didn’t support the project, and it never happened, which, Papasergiou, said was due in large part to the efforts of those people, who eventually formed the Coalition to Save Hempstead Harbor.

More potentially harmful developments are on the horizon, she said, and it would be difficult to advocate for the harbor on the limited budget the coalition has now. “We do so much on such a shoestring,” she said. “We really need to bring more financial resources into the organization to keep a handle on everything that’s going on.”

RXR Realty’s ongoing condominium project at Garvies Point, in Glen Cove, is one concern for the coalition, Papasergiou said. Since construction started in 2017, pollution of the harbor from Glen Cove Creek has increased. Although the City of Glen Cove has been helpful in efforts to control it, the concern, she said, is still there.

Additionally, a seven-story, 170-unit housing complex called the Bay Aggregate has been proposed on property near the Port Washington shoreline. The proposal is in its infancy, Papasergiou said, and she believes it is important that the coalition have someone involved who will advocate for the harbor. The coalition is not opposed to all development, she said, but rather wants to make sure it is kept in check.

“There’s just so much going on at this point on the harbor that we need to be the eyes and the ears of the community, and to not miss a beat,” she said.

Papasergiou said that more funding would also help the coalition continue its various water monitoring programs. Carol DiPaolo, its program director and water monitoring coordinator, said it receives generous grants from federal and local agencies for programming, but they rarely cover the entire budget. There needs to be cash in reserve, she said, to meet unexpected costs. “There’s always the need to be able to have the resources if things move in a different direction,” DiPaolo said.

One of the organization’s newest programs is the implementation of floating upweller units, which help sea clams grow in Tappen Marina. The project, DiPaolo said, received funding from the Nassau County Soil and Water Conservation District last year, and it was the first time the water quality in the marina had ever been monitored. That was important, she said, in determining the baseline health of the area.

DiPaolo explained that clams play an integral role in the harbor’s water quality because they act as natural filters. If more funding were secured for programs such as this one, she said, the coalition could continue to learn about the harbor and use the resulting data to keep it as healthy as possible.

Other issues the coalition needs to address, Papasergiou said, include rising water levels and temperatures, groundwater contamination, plastic pollution and threatened shellfish beds. All pose an increased health risk to humans as well as aquatic wildlife, she said, so the coalition needs to do more to help mitigate them, and the fundraiser will be key to those efforts.

Much of its work is done by volunteers, Papasergiou said, many of whom have been involved for decades. Sea Cliff resident Lisa Cashman is one of the newer members of the coalition’s board, having joined roughly a year ago. The coalition has quietly done great work for decades, Cashman said, and the fundraiser is a great opportunity for the community to support an organization that has played an integral part in keeping one of the North Shore’s most vital natural ecosystems safe.

“I think that the coalition has been quietly doing this amazing work for so many years, and now is the time that they really need to get this community involvement,” Cashman said, later adding, “Having the community really involved via the fundraising effort, and being able to communicate what’s going on and widening our footprint in the area, is really important.”

Contributions to the fundraiser can be made online at www.coalitiontosavehempsteadharbor.org, or by sending a check to the Coalition to Save Hempstead Harbor, P.O. Box 159, Sea Cliff, N.Y. 11579.